Crunch Time
by Mslead-Kytrin
Summary: What's a trio of troublemakers to do when they find themselves tired and with too much time on their hands during finals week? Play pranks on their favorite targets of course! Warning: Glitter bombs involved. Klance.


**Hey guys! A surprise Voltron fic to break up our Fairy Tail routine! This lovely little oneshot is our first submission for the Voltron Games contest on Tumblr. I hope you all enjoy the slight break in routine over the next week (don't worry Wednesday will have your Tempest update as usual), and enjoy the story!**

 **Warning: Klance mentioned in this. If that gives you hives then don't read it.**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own. This is for fun not profit.**

* * *

 _ **Crunch Time**_

It was that time of year when the sun rose on a hopeful day and the dreams of students were dashed everywhere.

Within Altea University, several students drifted through the halls to their classes, moaning like ghosts unable to move on from the earthly plane.

It was finals week, a time where students were crushed beneath the weight of work they had procrastinated on. Several took refuge to the student center for additional resources, others attempted to bargain with their professors, while others fled into the library for protection.

This was where three miserable students found themselves one early Monday morning.

It was a small study group, only three in number but each one looking like a swift death would be a mercy upon their souls.

Hunk Garrett sat hunched over an mathbook, his eyes going a little cross eyed by the complicated formulas he was swiftly trying to memorize.

Lance McLain, who was possibly already dead, had his forehead against the library desk and a cup of coffee in a lax hand.

Next to him Katie Holt, or Pidge, as she preferred to be called, was angrily poking Lance's ear with the eraser on her pencil. She had already memorized three text books of material so she was fairly confident she would come out of finals unscathed. However she had been roped into an early morning tutoring session with her two friends, and she didn't particularly appreciate one being asleep.

"Lance, wake up," she growled.

The next poke she shoved at his ear might have been a little too rough, because either she ruptured his eardrum or Lance was being a drama queen by the way he lunged away from her.

"Pidge!" He yelped indignantly, only to be shushed by several nearby students, some of whom looked jealous that he had even that much energy, and given a beady eyed glare by the librarian. He flushed a bit and ducked his head sheepishly as he sat back down, shooting Pidge a glare in the process.

"What's the big idea?" He hissed, and Pidge leveled a stare she hoped conveyed how unimpressed she was.

"You were sleeping." She replied primly, "If Hunk and I have to suffer, so do you."

"How are you suffering?" Lance asked, "You already know this stuff by heart!"

Pidge leaned her head against her hand, "Yeah, and I _could_ be back at my dorm sleeping, or doing any number of more interesting things. Instead I'm here trying to cram an entire semester's worth of physics into your head."

Lance had the grace to blush at that, "Sorry Pidge." He apologized, "I was up all night finishing my paper on the evolution of air and space flight for history."

Pidge snorted a bit, but let it pass. Lance was awake, and she knew all about his obsession with airplanes and flying. She and Hunk had a private bet going about how long it would take Lance to break and get his pilot's license.

Hunk chose that moment to drop the book to the table with a groan, "I can't do this anymore." He whimpered, "The formulae are starting to blur together."

"Guys you've been at it for like, fifteen minutes," Pidge said impatiently, plucking Lance's coffee from his hand and downing the whole thing at once. She smirked at the two of them and her eyes glittered, "But we're all tired and we're not going to get anywhere if we don't relax a little."

"So what do you suggest oh wise Pidgeotto?" Lance drawled. He pushed himself forward on his elbows, inching in closer as she beckoned them closer.

"I suggest we find the tae kwan do team, and play a much anticipated end of the year prank on our favorite contenders," Pidge smirked wickedly at the two.

Hunk couldn't bother to hide his horror, "You want us to prank Shiro and Keith?" He whisper-screamed at the smug look on Pidge's face, "Keith would destroy us! And Shiro, god, Shiro will give us his Disappointed Face."

"Nothing is worse than Shiro's Disappointed Face!" He whimpered.

"I think it's a great idea!" Lance interjected, shoving their books off the table top to clatter in a pile on the other side, "Shiro and Keith's classes finished up yesterday, they can bear a little bit of end of the year pranking!"

"For the good of our grades, right team?" Lance cheered, earning himself a wave of angry 'shushes' from the nearby library-goers.

"Excellent," Pidge smirked and whipped out her laptop from her messenger bag. She pushed open the top and powered it on. An excited Lance, followed by a reluctant Hunk, edged in on either side of her.

Once her computer was up and humming happily, Pidge pulled up the schedule for their favorite athletes, "Now, Shiro is going to be finishing up at the gym now, while Keith is going to be starting at the pool soon. We will need to take care of Shiro so he doesn't see it coming, but we can't risk Keith coming out and catching us in the act."

"Lance, you will serve as a distraction to Keith, you're on the swim team and you are always looking for an excuse to compete with him. He'll never suspect a thing." Pidge smirked at Lance.

"And what exactly are we going to do to Shiro?" Hunk asked fearfully, "I mean, you remember what happened last semester right? With the shaving cream? I thought for sure Keith was going to stab us all with that sword of his!"

"No, no, nothing like that." Pidge smirked deviously, "I have a much better plan this time."

"This time?" Hunk asked, "Wait a second, you've been planning this already?"

Pidge's lips curled into a wicked grin the Grinch would've been proud of and Hunk dropped his forehead to the table, "We are _so_ getting the Disappointed Face!"

That didn't stop him from getting up and shoving his books into his bag with the rest of them though. Lance grinned eagerly as he waved to the two of them and ran off to pick a fight and a challenge with Keith. He trusted Pidge to handle the rest.

He sauntered into the changing room and up to his locker, ostensibly ignoring Keith as he passed by and tossed his very heavy bookbag in and pulled his swimsuit out.

"What are you doing here?" Keith asked, "Aren't you supposed to be studying?"

Lance snorted as he pulled off his shirt, secretly more than a little pleased that Keith was looking, "Please. I can pass those exams easy!"

"Oh really?" Keith drawled, interest and anticipation sparking in his eyes, "That's impressive considering the last _I_ heard you were barely scraping a passing grade."

Lance opened his mouth, jaw dropping at the _rudeness_ of Keith's jab. He really hoped that whatever Pidge was planning was going to cause an undue amount of suffering on Keith.

"Rude much? I'll have you know that my grade is absolutely stellar," Lance stretched out, making a show of limbering up. Keith didn't move, his expression carefully neutral, "Besides, I gotta keep in shape man! How else am I going to keep smearing you?"

Keith let out a derisive snort, "Like you're smearing me now? Please."

"What's the matter Keith? You're afraid of a little truth bomb? You know I'm one of the best swimmers there is." Lance smirked and jabbed a thumb into his chest, "You're welcome to try to take my title. _If you can_."

As expected, and as was absolutely predictable, Lance said the magic words to get Keith's expression all fired up. Keith threw his towel firmly over his head and glared at Lance, "Alright then _Bubbles_ , you're on. If I win though, you've got to get your sorry butt back to studying so you don't fail."

"And if _I_ win, then lunch is on you!" Lance cheered and flashed a couple of finger guns in Keith's direction.

"Deal." Keith smirked darkly, "Get ready to go down!"

"In your dreams Kogane!" Lance smirked as he grabbed his towel and marched towards the pool, "Prepare to lose hard!"

His smirk widened as he heard a low growl behind him, but despite it he relaxed a little as he moved into the pool area. It never failed. There was just something about the dampness in the air, the taste of the chlorine in the air, that both soothed and energized him.

He dropped his towel on a chair and moved over to one end, "Across and back?" He suggested, "Best two out of three with two minutes in between?"

"You're on." Keith agreed, and Lance mentally breathed a sigh of relief. That would be more than long enough for Pidge and Hunk to do their work. If it wasn't then his friends were slipping.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as Keith dropped his towel and got into position, unable to resist trailing it over those sleek muscles a little. He would never admit it, but he'd been admiring Keith and his form since their orientation day. It was half the reason he'd first blurted out a challenge to the otherwise reclusive teen, and their rivalry had started.

It was just a pity his interest was so one-sided. Or, at least, he'd never picked up any hints from Keith that he might swing that way.

Then again, trying to figure _anything_ out about Keith was like trying to pry open a bear trap with tweezers.

He shook himself a little as Keith raised an eyebrow at him, "Well?" He asked, "Are we going to do this or are you just going to stare at me?"

"Oh we are _totally_ doing this!" Lance replied, "Prepare to lose Keith!"

He dropped into position and carefully counted down, his focus snapping back to the task at hand as he hit one and plunged into the water.

He took to the water easily, right in his element. However Keith proved a tough competitor. Lance didn't focus at all on him though, only pushing through his strokes as he hit the wall, spun in a tight flip and began his return trip back.

Lance slammed his palm against the timer, head popping up a second before Keith's.

He punched two fists in the air and cheered wildly, ignoring the disgruntled glare Keith was leveling on him. "What's the matter?" Lance panted, pushing his goggles up onto his forehead and grimacing when they pinched at his hair.

"Didn't think I'd cream ya?" Lance teased, drifting over to the lane bouys and leaning his arms heavily on them.

"It's not over yet," Keith shot back, his eyes glittering with competitiveness, "You're going to shove your nose back into a math book if you like it or not."

"Looks like you're going to have to make me," Lance laughed and blew a raspberry, drifting back and looping his arms against the wall, "But I dunno Keith, it looks more like I'm going on a lunch date with you instead."

He batted his eyes at Keith, whose face looked like it was starting to pinken, "And just so you know, I'm not a cheap date."

"Of course you're not," Keith rolled his eyes and nodded to the timer, snapping his goggles back on. He gripped the edge of the wall and hoisted himself up.

Lance took a moment to admire the way the strong muscles of his back bunched as he lifted himself easily out of the water. He was all lean muscle and Lance let out a bubbly-little sigh at the sight of it.

"Come on Lance, out of the water, it's been two minutes," Keith crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow at him.

Lance grinned and hoisted himself out of the water gamely, "Let's go then!" He crowed, "I can practically taste that wonderful food!"

Keith rolled his eyes as he got back into position, "Keep telling yourself that." He smirked, "I predict you'll be spending the afternoon buried in textbooks."

"You're sadistic." Lance deadpanned, "Saying that during finals week."

"Is there a better time to say it?" Keith asked with a raised eyebrow.

Lance huffed and dropped into position. He looked back down at the water as he counted down again and plunged back in.

The second race was a little slower than the first. It was inevitable. Lance was a little odd like that. His first trip through the water was always in good form, but his second slowed a bit until he really hit his stride in the third. It drove his coach and teammates nuts, but no amount of training stopped it.

Unfortunately, that meant that when he came back to the wall again it was a tenth of a second after Keith slapped his hand against the timer.

"Not talking so hot now are you?" Keith smirked.

"I'm just pacing myself." Lance replied haughtily, "Just wait until I hit my stride!"

All thoughts of the prank pushed from his mind, Lance hoisted himself from the water first this time. He could feel Keith's eyes lingering in his back, and Lance felt his jaw drop a bit.

 _Was Keith checking him out?_

Lance peeked over his shoulder, tying to catch him in the act. Dark violet eyes seemed to trace over him when he pushed free from the water.

The 'See something you like?' was on the tip of Lance's tongue before he realized pointing out to Keith he had been caught in the midst of ogling Lance's butt would probably push him away.

Still, it made a happy thrill run through him as perhaps his previously thought one-sided crush on Keith wasn't so one-sided after all.

"Come on hotstuff." Lance tried a flirtatious tone to test his theory and purred back at Keith, cocking a hip and adjusting his goggles, "Don't keep me waiting."

Lance watched Keith inhale a mouthful of chlorinated water.

Interesting...

Keith shoved himself out, red faced and looking mildly frustrated with Lance's flirting, "Who is keeping who waiting! I'm ready to go!"

"I see that," Lance said smugly, stretching a bit, "We're one-to-one, you ready for the deal breaker?"

"You bet," Keith said hotly and approached the edge of the pool. He shook his head, dark hair plastered to his neck, "Eat my bubbles."

"I think there are other things I might want to eat," Lance purred, watching Keith's eyes widen. Lance could practically watch Keith's mind plunge into the gutter, and by how red he was turning— he was imagining it.

"Like that delicious lunch you're going to buy me!" Lance cheered.

Keith gaped a bit as Lance swiftly counted down. He was just a second too late getting back into the water.

So it came as no surprise when Lance emerged the victor for the last round. He let out a loud cheer and splashed a heavy wave of water at a spluttering Keith, "I win!"

"You cheated! I wasn't ready!" Keith protested, but shielded himself by lifting his arms upright.

"Too bad! I won the match, you can go ahead and call me Michael Phelps baby, because you're going to be hanging gold medals from this neck!" Lance laughed while climbing out of the pool.

He extended a hand towards Keith, pulling him from the water. For a moment Lance let his eyes travel appreciatively along the path a drop of water took on Keith's chest.

"So, about that lunch date?" Lance asked hopefully.

Keith scowled a little, but the way his lips were tugging upwards told Lance he wasn't as angry as he was trying to appear.

"Fine." He huffed, "A bet's a bet." He grabbed his towel and rubbed it across his face, "So where did you want to go anyway?" He cast Lance a sideways glance, "And I would appreciate it if you didn't bankrupt me."

Lance grinned at that. He'd had no intention of bankrupting Keith. He knew the guy was here on full scholarship the same as him. But he also knew that Keith had a part-time job, and so had a little spending money.

"How about the Lion's Den?" He suggested, and was pleased to see Keith relax and smile back a little. The Den wasn't super upscale, but it was popular with the upperclassmen and the graduate students who wanted something a little nicer than fast food or the cafeteria for not too much.

"Sounds good." Keith agreed, and fixed him with a look that had enough genuine concern in it that Lance's heart fluttered a bit, "Seriously though, are you sure you can afford the time away from finals? I know you still have classes, and you can't afford to do badly."

Lance smiled and shook his head, "Relax." He replied, "I've maintained between a 3.0 and a 3.2 since I got here, and I'm not doing any worse than a B in any of my classes this semester. No matter what Pidge says. A little time off for a decent lunch won't destroy my GPA."

Keith looked somewhat appeased by that, and he began to towel dry his hair, "Alright then. Let's do it."

They headed back to their lockers and Lance was practically bouncing in joy. He was going to get to go on a date with Keith. Keith hadn't even denied it whenever Lance called it that, granted he hadn't confirmed it either but that didn't change the fact that they were going to eat together in a quasi-nice place just the two of them!

Lance reached over Keith's locker to spin open his, adjusting his body so he could get his extra change of clothes out. He felt a flutter of nerves in his gut and he smiled at Keith, "You know. This was actually pretty fun. I wouldn't mind making this a regular thing."

"You coming here and distracting me from my workout, or trying to mooch free lunches?" Keith snorted, grinning a little as he spun his combination.

"No you dork, I meant hanging out with _you_." Lance blurted out at once.

Keith raised his stupid eyebrows, mouth dropping open into an 'o' but his face slowly turned into a hesitant smile, "Lance are you—"

Whatever Keith had been about to say was cut off the moment he opened his locker. The thought would have to remain unfinished, because in that moment a shower of golden glitter exploded with powerful force straight out of Keith's locker.

And directly into Lance's face.

Lance let out a screech of pain from the glitter in his eyes and reared back away from the offending locker and over a rack of pool floaties.

He had completely forgotten about the prank, and as he was lying on the floor with glitter in his face and a worried looking Keith hovering over him, he had to say he probably deserved this.

Though he was absolutely going to murder Pidge anyway. When she'd mentioned a prank he hadn't expected a glitter bomb with the force of a cannon behind it. That had _hurt_.

"PIDGE!" He roared furiously as he tried to wipe the glitter from his eyes without getting any more in there than he already had, "I'm going to kill you!"

He gratefully accepted Keith's hand up, and tried to blink his watering eyes clear, only to come up short at the look on Keith's face, "What?"

"Pidge?" He asked wryly, "And a prank in _my_ locker?" He crossed his arms, his expression darkening, "Was that intended for me by any chance?"

Lance winced a little, which was as good as a confession, and Keith growled a little.

"So was all that just a distraction?!" He demanded, and Lance winced even more at the hurt under the anger.

"No!" He yelped, "I mean, yes okay I was supposed to distract you with swimming while Pidge and Hunk set up a prank. But the rest was all me I swear!" He glared blearily around the locker room, "And I don't recall agreeing to a glitter cannon!" He shouted, "What the hell Pidge?!"

"That... is what I would like to know." Shiro rumbled as he stormed in, covered in sparkling purple and silver glitter, and clearly considerably less than pleased.

"I'm sorry Lance!" Pidge squeaked as she and Hunk tried to make a break for the exit, "I didn't know it would go off with that much force!"

"Oh no you don't!" Shiro growled as he lunged forward, "Keith!"

"On it!" Keith shot back and tackled Hunk below the legs from the side. The big man let out a shout of surprise as he crashed to the floor by their angry friend and Pidge let out a shriek as she tripped over them both.

Shiro sauntered over to them, his eyes narrowing and still somehow managing to look intimidating despite being covered head to toe in purple glitter

"I'm a little impressed you managed to rig a glitter bomb in my bag, it nailed me right in my side, but do you know how long it's going to take me to explain why the weight room looks like Mardi Gras exploded in it?" Shiro, much to Hunk's fear, leveled his _most_ disappointed look at them.

"Oh no Pidge, there it is! We've disappointed our _father_!"

"Quit wailing Hunk, don't let him see your fear," Pidge elbowed Hunk in the arm as they all untangled themselves.

"You two are coming with me," Shiro said cuttingly, "Get your mops, you're going to help clean up every speck of glitter."

He glanced at Keith, "Get Lance to the bathroom and help him wash off before he's blinded forever by that glitter."

Keith scowled at that and walked over to where Lance was trying to scrape the glitter clinging to his damp face, "Do I have to?"

"That's cold man." Lance whined and Keith snorted.

"Colder than keeping me distracted so a bomb is placed in my locker? I don't think so." Keith grunted but grabbed Lance's upper arm anyway.

He steered Lance into the showers and turned on the faucet, but rather than the icy cold water Lance was half expecting, the hiss of water started a couple feet away, and when Keith finally tugged him under it was warm instead of cold.

He blinked a little as his vision started to clear, startled by the consideration given how mad Keith seemed to be, and tried to figure out what he was going to say as he groped for the soap.

There was an impatient huff as his wrist was grabbed, "Hold still idiot."

Now completely stunned, Lance did what was asked and nearly jumped out of his skin as a washcloth began making gentle passes over his glittery face.

"Thanks." He murmured, shifting a bit guiltily, "I'm... sorry about the glitterbomb."

There was a pause in the strokes before they continued, "Considering you were the one caught in it..."

"No." Lance protested, "I mean, I'm sorry for distracting you."

There was more silence at that, and just as Lance began to fidget nervously, wondering if he should let Keith out of their bet all things considered, "Why do you even pull these stupid pranks?"

Lance opened his mouth to reply, but the words died in his throat, and Keith huffed again as he pulled the washcloth clear, "You're eyes are clean."

Lance warily opened them and was pleased when there was only minor discomfort as he did. His throat dried a little as he was treated to the sight of Keith standing under the water with him, a look he'd never seen before on his face.

"Keith-" He started, the fear that he'd just lost _any_ chance he might've had with the other man over this.

"There are better ways." Keith interrupted abruptly.

"What?" Lance asked in confusion, and Keith sighed.

"There are better ways of catching my attention if that's what you wanted." He elaborated, and pushed into Lance's personal space, "Not that you needed it."

"W-what?" Lance stammered, losing ounce of cool and suaveness he somehow managed to cram in his body. It was all immediately punctured by the intensity in Keith's eyes and his proximity.

"Am I wrong?" Keith asked, his voice soft but firm as he glared up at Lance. As if daring him to deny it. He took another step closer to Lance and they were so, so, so close.

Lance dared to hope that maybe for once they were both on the same page. He swallowed tight, his heart pounding in his chest.

"No, you're not." Lance conceded, knowing that if he blustered and denied Keith here and now, he really would have shot himself irreparably in the foot.

A flicker of surprise flashed in Keith's eyes, as if he wasn't truly expecting Lance's agreement. He swallowed tight and a tiny smile turned his perfect lips upwards. Lance was a goner. He gave him a light shove and Lance found himself stumbling from the shower, somewhat dazed by what just happened.

"Good, because we've got a lunch date, and I'd hate for it to be spoiled." Keith tossed a look over his shoulder at Lance along with a towel that smacked him right in the face.

"Come on, hurry up and get a proper shower and dry off. We want to get there before the lunch rush, and we can't show up looking like we came back from a night of clubbing," Keith snorted.

Lance let out a laugh of his own as he realized that by helping him get the glitter off his face, Keith had suffered quite a bit of the shimmering specks himself.

"You got it!" Lance cheered happily, absurdly pleased by how this had somehow turned out in his favor.

Man, Pidge and Hunk were going to kill him.

It was a sacrifice he was more than happy to make.

-::-

Hours later, Lance grinned as he slid into a seat next to his exhausted and whimpering friends.

"Where... the hell have you been?" Pidge groaned, "I thought Shiro was going to work us to death!"

"Out having lunch with Keith!" He replied cheerfully as he stole one of Pidge's fries and bit into it, aware that Shiro and Keith were watching around the corner, "And then getting tutored."

"What?" Hunk demanded, his eyes widening in shock as he lifted his head from the table, "How did that happen? Why didn't Shiro have you scrubbing the locker room or something?"

"Apparently, getting nailed by our prank instead of Keith counted as punishment enough." Lance shrugged as Pidge frowned.

"Wait a sec... are you telling us that you got to _go out on a date_ while we were stuck scrubbing the gym clean?!"

"Yep! Pretty much!" Lance chirped happily as he got ready to run, "And I gotta tell ya... Shiro's a great tutor. I'm pretty much guaranteed to ace my physics final now. Oh and Keith's an even better kisser!"

"Laaaaaaance!" Pidge growled furiously as she started to rise, "You are _so_ dead!"

Lance let out a laugh as he sprinted off, the sounds of swearing and scrambling coming behind him. He tossed his new boyfriend and Shiro a jaunty salute as he ran past, grinning at the way Keith was cackling, "See ya later guys!"

"Damnit Lance!" Pidge raged behind him, spurring him into putting on more speed, "You're going to pay for this!"

Yeah. Probably. Especially if she got her brother involved. But it was entirely worth it.

They all ended up passing their finals with flying colors, and Lance happily contributed his success to Pidge and Hunk's glitter bomb. And despite having to fend off the ankle-biter that was Pidge for a week afterwards, being able to slide an arm around Keith was well worth the risks.

Crunch time at Altea University was the _best_.

* * *

 _ **And that's the story! I hope you all enjoyed! Look forward to more goodies from us over the next week or so as we move through the games, and GO TEAM GREEN LION!**_


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